First Saturday
by FieryArtemis
Summary: The trial of Dr. Robert Callaghan, the Supervillain known as Yokai, is finally underway and the first full week has just ended. Hiro Hamada is exhausted physically, emotionally, and mentally. He isn't entirely sure why Alistair Krei has asked to see him at his office during the first Saturday off from the trial.


"I'm here to see Mr. Krei." Hiro said, placing his hands on the receptionist's desk. She looked up at him and blinked a bit in confusion as she looked at him. Hiro cleared his throat before pressing on. "My name's Hiro Hamada. I know I'm a bit early but…"

The receptionist cut him off when she heard his name. Or rather, the sound of the door buzzing to grant him access cut him off. "Go right on in. All the way down the hall, last door on the right. Can't miss it dear." she smiled at him brightly. "He's expecting you."

"Really?" Hiro asked, slightly taken aback. He looked between the door and the receptionist in shock. This little meeting wasn't supposed to start for another half hour. Hiro had technically come way early. His choices had been rather grim, especially for a Saturday. He could've stayed home and let everything close in on him. Going to the lab was also out. Working on Baymax felt too hard at the moment. Hiro needed space. A place to breath. To think. To hide. He'd wanted nothing more than to just curl up in bed, under the covers and away from the world. It was incredibly just how exhausted he was. However, he'd promised just about everyone that he wouldn't shut himself up or everyone else out. That was how he ended up in the rotunda of Krei Tech, waiting to see Alistair Krei so incredibly early.

The receptionist's smile didn't falter. It kind of bordered on creepy when you looked at it to long. That was probably Hiro's cue to go. "Thanks," he mumbled as he made his way through the doors.

The new Krei Tech building had been completely annihilated thanks to Callaghan. It was in the process of being rebuilt but in the meantime the company continued to use its old headquarters. Not nearly as fancy as the new building was supposed to be but still fairly nice with the large windows that ran all the way down the hall and the cheery sunshine filling the space. The air conditioning had to be kicked on to full blast though so that the sunshine didn't roast the entire building. Hiro shivered a little, pulling down the sleeves of his hoodie. After spending a week in court wearing suits and ties, it felt weird to wear regular clothes again.

Just like the receptionist said, it was impossible to miss Krei's office. Krei stood facing the window but some sort of sixth sense made him turn around right as Hiro approached. The door was standing wide open. "Hiro! Welcome! Come on in!" Krei called out cheerily to him, waving him into the office.

Very hesitantly, Hiro stepped into the room. "Is there something you needed Mr. Krei?" asked Hiro, "We haven't really talked since, well y'know, you gave me or rather… um, Big Hero 6 that file on Project Silent Sparrow. Is there something wrong?"

"Wrong?" repeated Krei, turning his head to the side. He blinked in confusion before shaking his head. "No, no. Nothing's wrong. Please make yourself comfortable."

Krei motioned to the chair that Hiro stood in front of. A clear invitation to sit down. Hiro bit back the urge to tell Krei to spit out the reason for inviting him to his office so he could just go home and sleep for the rest of the day. He didn't though. He'd promised Aunt Cass that he wouldn't be rude to Krei. Instead, Hiro obligingly sat down in the chair he'd been offered. "Can I get you a drink? Water? Soda? Coffee? Um… decaf coffee?"

"Uh, no thanks I'm good." Hiro shook his head. "So if nothing's wrong then why did you want to see me exactly?"

Krei pulled back in surprise. Well that came out ruder than he'd meant it too. Sorry, Aunt Cass. He'd tried. Honestly he had. Krei cleared his throat. "I just wanted to check up on you."

"Check up on me?" snorted Hiro. Alright so maybe he wasn't trying too terribly hard to be polite but he was on edge. Krei didn't seem to notice it.

"Make sure that you're doing alright. I know that the trial started on Monday." Krei told him.

"Yeah, you and everyone else who's watching the news, reading the paper, or listening to the local radio. Or to anyone gossiping around campus for that matter." Hiro crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. The long awaited trial for Dr. Robert Callaghan, renowned roboticist turned Supervillain, had finally arrived. After months of sitting in jail after the incident at what was supposed to be the shiny new Krei Tech building, Callaghan finally had his day in court. Hiro had the most bitter taste in his mouth about it though. He pressed his lips together in a thin line to keep himself from saying anything and a silence passed between him and Krei.

"Hiro…" Krei said slowly, his voice dripping with sympathy. "I know they aren't charging Callaghan with Tadashi's murder."

He snapped to attention. Eyes wide and jaw hanging slack as he stared up at Krei in complete and utter shock. "H… how do you know that?"

"I talked to the DA." Krei admitted.

For a moment all Hiro could do was sit and stare at Krei with wide eyes. All his energy suddenly fled. He sunk in his chair, shoulders hunching forward, and mumbled "I think I'll have that drink after all Mr. Krei."

"If you were a bit older I'd offer you something a bit stronger than a soda." Krei told him dryly as he sat a chilled can down in front of Hiro on the desk.

Hiro let out a barking laugh. "My Aunt would definitely not appreciate that."

"I didn't think she would." Krei said. There was a ghost of a smile on his face. It hurt Hiro to return it. Smiling felt like an utter betrayal and absolutely heinous at the moment with Tadashi's murderer on trial for just about everything _except_ for the murder. He pressed his eyes closed as he popped the can's lid and took a drink to hide the look on his face.

"God! It's only been a week and I already feel like this stupid trial is just dragging along." Hiro scrubbed at his face tiredly.

"Hiro…" Krei paused, thinking over his words before continuing very slowly, "I know that this week hasn't been easy on anyone involved but I can't even begin to comprehend what you're going through."

Hiro shifted in his seat uncomfortably and forced himself to look up at him. In the many weeks since the incident that had nearly obliterated him and his company, Alistair Krei had done many things to make amends. Nobody could say that he wasn't grateful for Big Hero 6's rescue. He'd become their biggest and loudest supporters. He'd also willingly handed over the case file of the doomed Project Silent Sparrow to Hiro and his friends in the spirit of transparency and clearing the air between them. He'd funded the SFIT building named after his brother. Quietly in fact. Had Aunt Cass not told him, or encouraged Krei to make it public, Hiro never would've known. On the whole, Krei was on fairly amicable terms with him and his friends. However, Hiro didn't think that gave him the right to stick his big elephant nose into Hiro's private business.

"No, you really couldn't." he muttered. His hand clenched around the can, metal popping underneath his fingers.

"Is there anything I could do to help?"

"Unless you can magically summon up evidence that implicates Callaghan in setting the fire in the convention hall that killed Tadashi then there's nothing you can do but thanks." he growled. A bitter taste filled his mouth. Hiro took another drink to wash it out but that only made it worse.

Krei looked at him in confusion. "I thought you told me that Callaghan said something about the fire when Big Hero 6 confronted him."

"He never actually copped to setting the fire. Just that it was Tadashi's mistake." Hiro said.

 _Tadashi's_ mistake. Not his own. His brother's who'd never hurt anyone in his life. Who'd done nothing but idolize Callaghan. Who'd done nothing but try to do Callaghan proud. The memory brought a rage bubbling dangerously close to the surface. He put a few more indents in his soda cans. "He denies even being involved in the fire. That stealing my microbots was just a crime of opportunity." he spat.

Krei reached forward and wrapped his hand over his shoulder in an attempt to be firm and reassuring. Hiro tensed under it and started to jerk away from it. Before he had a chance to though, Krei sensed it. "Sorry." he told him sincerely as he let go quickly. "Have you talked to the DA about it? Told them what you just told me? How Callaghan said that it was your brother's…"

"What would it change?" Hiro asked, cutting him off grimly. He ran a hand through his tangled hair in frustration. "That doesn't actually prove Callaghan murdered my brother. All it proves is that he's a heartless, ruthless, callous son of a…"

He broke off into an unintelligible scream. Hiro's hand crushed into the soda can for a half moment before he sent it hurtling across the room in a blind fury. Some small part of his brain realized that Krei had jumped back at his outburst. However, Hiro couldn't bring himself to care. He was too busy trying to fight the wave of tears that threatened to choke and drown him. He failed.

Callaghan was on trial. After everything he'd done, after all the people that he'd hurt and tried to hurt, he was finally answering for his crimes. The one person who'd been wronged by Callaghan the most though… there would never be any justice for him. The best Tadashi was ever going to get was an involuntary manslaughter charge tacked on to Krei's attempted murder and all the other supervillainy related charges. Not even close to justice in Hiro's opinion. Not for Tadashi. Not for his brother who had been so brutally betrayed by the person he looked up to the most.

A tentative, gentle hand on his shoulder pulled him out of the tight ball that he'd rolled himself into. Hiro looked up and met Krei's eyes. Krei let his hand stay on his shoulder just few seconds longer before say, "Whatever happens Hiro, Robert Callaghan will never be able to escape what he's done. Not to you and not to your brother. He will convict himself even if a jury doesn't and Tadashi's death will haunt him for the rest of his life."

Hiro scrubbed at his cheeks with his sleeve. "How can you sound so sure?" he mumbled.

"I've known him for years both professionally and through conversations I've had with Abigail about him." Krei answered easily. "And believe it or not, I've actually exchanged a few civil words with him in the past before Silent Sparrow."

"And that makes you an expert on the inner workings of a roboticist turned Supervillain?"

"Maybe not an expert but it gives me enough of a glimpse into his mind to know that the death of one his students isn't something that he's just going to forget about."

Hiro picked at a loose string on his hoodie as Krei's words rolled through his mind. Callaghan had done little more than sat in a chair this whole first week of the trial while lawyers paraded evidence and witnesses through the courtroom. Hiro himself hadn't spoken to Callaghan since the day he was arrested. He wanted nothing more than to believe Krei's assertion that Callaghan wasn't as disgusting as Hiro believed him to be. Was that so much to ask for?

"Hiro…" Krei voice pierced through his thoughts. "Callaghan _is_ going to prison for a very, _very_ long time. He's going to have all that time to think about everything he's done. Including the role he played in Tadashi's death."

"D… do you really think so?" stammered Hiro.

Krei nodded, "Absolutely."

Once more Hiro wiped his face with his sleeve. There were probably already red marks from the coarse fabric all up and down his face. He couldn't bring himself to care though. Instead Hiro looked up at Krei. "Thanks Mr. Krei. I… I really needed to hear that I think."

"Any time Hiro." he promised with a thin smile. "Any time. If you, or anyone else on your team for that matter, needs anything my door is always open."


End file.
